BOB KEISSER on MOTORSPORTS: Success by Foyt, Rahal in Long Beach Grand Prix harken back to the glory days

They ran the 39th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday along Shoreline Drive under blue skies, a warm sun, a capacity crowd and a strong scent of nostalgia.

It just as easily could have been the 14 th Grand Prix, which was held in 1988, a quarter-century ago. In 1988, the legendary A.J. Foyt drove the race for the first time and a young driver named Bobby Rahal finished second.

On Sunday, A.J. Foyt's race team, now being run by A.J.'s son Larry, won its first Long Beach Grand Prix, and a young driver named Graham Rahal, the son of Bobby, finished second.

History might not literally repeat itself, but it does occasionally like to tweak the memory.

As one can imagine, the Foyt and Rahal families were excited about the success of the new day and the links to the past. In the case of A.J. Foyt, it was his team's first win since 2002, bringing a name back to the forefront of a sport A.J. once dominated. Foyt won the Indy 500 four times and won five IndyCar titles.

Takuma Sato drove to the win Sunday, his first IndyCar title.

Foyt, now 78, wasn't in Long Beach because he's scheduled to undergo surgery for a sciatic nerve problem this week.

"He really hated that he wasn't here," Larry Foyt said, relaying the conversation he and his dad had after the race. "He's still the big boss man, and this is great for him.

"He said he was actually calm in the race, and pretty glad he stuck around to see a win. He knew our last was in 2002."

You have to go back to 1978 to find a win for Foyt and his team on a street or road course. Foyt has always been an oval guy, which is why he and his team had modest achievements in Long Beach. He or one of his team drivers ran here from 1988 to 1995, the best finish a fourth-place showing by Eddie Cheever in 1995.

When the CART/IRL split came, Foyt went to the IRL and had success right away with Scott Sharp and Kenny Brack behind the wheel. The team struggled some the following decade with a plethora of driver changes, and Larry Foyt, who drove on the NASCAR circuit, put his driving career away at his dad's request to learn the business and run the day-to-day operation.

"It was a slow process," he said. "I didn't make a lot of changes at the start, and even today we don't make decisions without bouncing them off A.J. But he does understand the need for change."

The team took a smaller personnel approach and Foyt said the commitment from ABC Supply, the team's primary sponsor for more than a decade, has been a key. In 2012 he landed the promising Mike Conway, the 2011 Long Beach Grand Prix winner. When Conway decided he wasn't going to drive a full 2012 IndyCar season - he no longer wants to drive ovals - Foyt pursued Sato.

Sato impressed a lot of people the past two years despite the fact that he hadn't won a race since driving F3 in 2001. He was a regular in F1 for seven years before trying IndyCar.

Ironically, he drove for Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan in 2012, knocking hard with a second, a third, and an eighth in Long Beach, a race in which he was headed to the podium before being spun out by another driver coming around the last turn.

"He had flashes of being quick, and we thought was coming to a peak in his career," Foyt said.

So did Bobby Rahal. The 2012 season was the first full season for the team after it essentially sat out three seasons dealing with post-merger changes.

"He drove really well for us," Rahal said. "We had to deal with the financial part of it and Takuma didn't have any sponsorship."

They found sponsorship once father and son agreed to work together. Graham drove for Newman/Haas and Chip Ganassi his first five seasons because he wanted to start his career on his own.

"It's really good for Graham," Bobby Rahal said "There's an emotional aspect there that doesn't exist if somebody else is driving. He's here because we both want to win. He's proven he's capable, and this was a really good step."

Graham's runner-up finish hit a little close to home. His dad finished second in Long Beach four times.

"One of these days we're going to win one," he said. "Finishing second is great, but not five times. We had great speed at the first two (IndyCar) races but didn't convert that into a win. Today, we had good speed all day."

Rahal started 11 th and bided his time, staying away from a day of heavy traffic and making good time when he came in to pit. By lap 24, he was seventh. He was fifth after a restart, then neatly passed Tony Kanaan, Will Power and Dario Franchitti to settle into second.

A restart on lap 55 allowed Rahal to close the gap to less than a second, but as the race went on Sato continued to pull away.

The excellent driving of Sato, Rahal and third-place finisher Justin Wilson, who started 24 th, was in stark contract to some horrible efforts by others.

James Hinchcliffe took turn 1 too hard and hit the tires and his car was craned off the track. Ryan Hunter-Reay, who started second, was caught in the pits when a yellow flag came out and then bobbled on his way out. He fell into the middle of the pack and went wide trying to pass and hit the tires. Will Power was in contention most of the day, then his car stalled in the pits while some rear damage was being repaired, and his car never regained its speed.

E.J. Viso, Charlie Kimball and Tony Kanaan also played pong with the walls late to lose a shot at a top-10 finish.

If the LBPD had been writing tickets for reckless driving Sunday, they could have patched a big hole in the city budget.

But not for Sato, the Foyts and the Rahals. Fast cars or not, the race had that feeling of a nice, pleasurable Sunday family picnic.